January 8, 2020 (Not Published)
Dear Editor,
With the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection behind us,
it is worthwhile to assess the absolute disaster Donald Trump has been to what
was formerly the Republican Party. We
need look no further than the vote totals of the 2020 election to see how much
damage Trumpism has done.
Trump lost to President Joe Biden in Georgia by 11,779
votes. That happened because he lost
28,542 Republican voters who voted for Republican candidates in House races while
withholding their votes from him. That
was in the general election when Republicans thought Trump was popular. Consider that it is normal for the head of the
ticket to out-perform down-ballot candidates, that is have “coattails.” Trump had none.
It is what happened in the runoffs that really explains why
Republicans should be punishing Trump rather than kowtowing to him. His lies about election fraud and vile attacks
on the election system turned Perdue’s 88,098 vote victory over Senator Jon
Ossoff in the General Election into a 54,944-vote defeat in the runoff. A total of 230,279 Republican voters
abandoned the party in the runoff won by Senator Raphael Warnock, even though
Democratic candidates came in 47,808 votes behind Republican candidates in the
Nov. 3 primary for Senator Kelly Loeffler’s seat.
These facts point to two things true Republicans should
consider: First, some 28,542 Republicans
and Republican-leaning independents chose to reject Trump out-right. Second, Trump injecting himself into the
Georgia runoff depressed the vote for Republican candidates by 10 percent,
while the Democratic candidates lost only 4 percent of their Nov. 3 voters.
As a Democrat, I am happy to let Dear Leader Trump go on leading
the opposition. As a citizen of the
United States, however, I lament the loss of the Republican Party that was at once
a partner and the loyal opposition in our great experiment in democracy.
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